Quiksilver Pro New York: Tuesday Wrap Up
This morning dawned overcast and gray after a night of torrential rain and plummeting temperatures – a fresh, cold North wind replacing the muggy onshore breeze that’s been howling the last few days. Fall weather in New York is here. Summer, officially over.

Round One kicked off in well-groomed two-foot peaks, the first pulses from nearing Hurricane Katia, in front of a small group of diehard New York surf fans. This is the first day of the richest surf contest to date, but the inclement weather and intimate morning crowd gave it the feel of a small time, East Coast family surf contest.

At eight sharp when Brett Simpson, Joel Parkinson, and Travis Logie paddled out in heat one in front of a deserted beach. Nevertheless, word got out fast that the contest was called on. At eleven when local hero Balaram Stack paddled out versus Kelly Slater and Dan Ross, the beach had filled despite the steady rains. Ala Dylan Graves versus Slater in Puerto Rico last November, it was entirely apparent whom the crowd was cheering for.

Each time Bal stood up Long Beach showed support, cheering and screaming, working together, a massive crowd acting as single entity to will the local boy past the 10-time champ. As it turned out, it wasn’t to be. Bal failed to land any of the numerous backside spinners he attempted, while Kelly went on a tear – making the weak lefts look entirely too fun and absolutely demolishing a rare right to stroll to victory on a board he’d surfed only once prior to the heat.

When asked how he’s approaching this event and today’s small waves, he answered that he is doing it all “with gratitude.”

“After surfing giant waves in Tahiti last week, it’s a nice feeling actually. Today we get to create out own energy out there. It’s not a bad thing necessarily. Coming from Florida I’ve surfed waves similar to this plenty of times, and they can be fun,” added the ten-time World Champion.

CJ Hobgood. Photo: Checkwood

In these very Sunshine Stateish conditions surprisingly CJ Hobgood was the only other Floridian/East Coaster to channel the inner grom days and blitz to victory, overcoming Bede Durbidge and advancing to the third round. The others – brother Damien, Cory Lopez, Gabe Kling, and wildcards Balaram Stack and Asher Nolan all failed to win their openers.

But the standout of the day was Josh Kerr, scoring 18 points in Heat 11 by way of the two biggest airs of the opening round, a full rotator reverse and an alley-oop on separate waves. Surprised? Hardly. Kerr is lethal in this shit.

“I got a couple of the ramps I was looking for. It was really cool, I was able to look in and see what happened [on the replay screen] and I was stoked on how that first air looked. I was kind of just floating. That was a lot of fun.”

Looking forward, this event may have hit the forecast jackpot. Tomorrow through Friday will see much larger Hurricane swell with the potential for a few epic moments as well, depending on wind conditions. Stay tuned for daily updates!—Zander Morton